Ozwater provides water professionals with a unique experience to share ideas and network. This year it was in Brisbane and Viridis attended in force to support our local event. We had four people attending as delegates and Tasleem and Geraldine also presented.
Tasleem presented twice! A poster paper tilted Improving Drinking Water Management in Walcha New South Wales Supported by Regulation and Stress or Joy? Cloncurry, Regional Queensland - Water Supply Challenges and Continual Improvement. Both of these papers looked at the improvements that regional water utilities have achieved through commitment to a risk management plan and having a champion to implement it. Cloncurry Shire Council was able to demonstrate improvements in water quality, E. coli and manganese, since the implementation of their Drinking Water Quality Management Plan (DWQMP).
Geraldine presented a poster paper titled Barriers Regional Utilities Face in Meeting Standards of Service. In this paper Geraldine took audit findings from Queensland DWQMP regulatory audits (with consent) and looked for trends. It was interesting to note that smaller utilities had on average more non-compliances, but remoteness was not a factor. Another interesting point was smaller utilities had more documentation related non-compliances, however, when considering operational compliance they were on par with larger utilities.